WotC Dragonlance: Everything You Need For Shadow of the Dragon Queen

WotC has shared a video explaining the Dragonlance setting, and what to expect when it is released in December.

World at War: Introduces war as a genre of play to fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons.

Dragonlance: Introduces the Dragonlance setting with a focus on the War of the Lance and an overview of what players and DMs need to run adventures during this world spanning conflict.

Heroes of War: Provides character creation rules highlighting core elements of the Dragonlance setting, including the kender race and new backgrounds for the Knight of Solamnia and Mage of High Sorcery magic-users. Also introduces the Lunar Sorcery sorcerer subclass with new spells that bind your character to Krynn's three mystical moons and imbues you with lunar magic.

Villains: Pits heroes against the infamous death knight Lord Soth and his army of draconians.

Notes --

• 224 page hardcover adventure
• D&D's setting for war
• Set in eastern Solamnia
• War is represented by context -- it's not goblins attacking the village, but evil forces; refugees, rumours
• You can play anything from D&D - clerics included, although many classic D&D elements have been forgotten
• Introductory scenarios bring you up to speed on the world so no prior research needed

 

[Dire Bare]

I might be running a classic Dragonlance campaign soon (using A5E) and I'll almost certainly let people play orcs if they want. Dragonborn maybe not, as draconians really are iconic and intrinsic to the setting, but the absence of orcs? Eh.

I kind of want to play a draconian PC during a War of the Lance campaign now . . . a deserter fleeing from the slavery of the dragon armies. Or perhaps a "noble" draconian trying to balance the scales, heh.

 

[Dire Bare]

I have to admit I'm curious - is there a huge demand from people who actually want to play (for instance) half- or full orcs in Krynn?

If so ... why? When your DM says 'roll up your new PCs, we're playing Dragonlance!' what motivates you to decide to play a half-orc in a world where there's no interesting half-orc history or gods or culture to base your PC on? What sort of story are you intending to tell, what is your PC history? Is it just the attraction of playing The Only Half-Orc In The World, or is the assumption that players like this are mostly going to be new to DL and just roll up a character from PHB options without knowing/caring about the lore from previous editions?

Edit: I suppose there's a game mechanical niche for 'big bruiser race', and given the unique setting role that draconians/dragonborn play in the setting, that really only leaves half-orcs out of the PC races for people wanting to play that sort of character. But if you're using custom racial ability adjustments (or if you allow minotaur PCs, which would be entirely lore-appropriate) then even that rationale largely evaporates.

Nope. Tempest in a teapot.

Orcs don't exist in Dragonlance. But, allowing an orc PC in your Dragonlance campaign will not break the setting. However, the number of players demanding play orcs or drow, while probably not zero, isn't really a thing to worry about.

For some, Dragonlance isn't Dragonlance unless orcs, drow, and other elements are explicitly excluded. For the rest of us, those exclusions aren't core to the Dragonlance experience, and don't matter.

 

[Velderan]

I don't know 1st but 2nd also had you keep your own XP and fighters got bonus xp for defeating enemies (HDxyour level i think) and that was before optional RP bonus... if the two were in a lot of fights (say 1 protecting the other) the fighter would get more, and based on this one fighter being more social any bonus RP xp would go to him too... but still not 30k difference.

You could also argue Raistlin's health kept him out of some fights but yeah, 30k is a pretty big gap.

 

[Delazar]

On the issue of orcs/no orcs, I think they will handle it like they did in Theros and Ravnica. They will just say nothing about it

 

[Tonguez]

If it was me I’d say “sure you can play a half-orc - everyone else in the world will view you as a half-goblin or a particularly ugly human”

Dragonborn will be banned

 

[Velderan]

I kind of want to play a draconian PC during a War of the Lance campaign now . . . a deserter fleeing from the slavery of the dragon armies. Or perhaps a "noble" draconian trying to balance the scales, heh.

Pretty much Kaz the Minotaur, worked pretty well in the novels. Realistically you'd likely face some hesitation and mistrust based on your race due to the events of the war which might not be everyone's comfort zone for roleplaying but as long as the table is on board it sounds fun to me!

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

The story of Darkness & Light was fun until it went to the moon. After that it went off-rails really quickly. It became completely improbable that Sturm wouldn't have mentioned "oh hey, I went to the moon during those five years apart," not to mention his reactions to seeing healing magic, dragons, and draconians for the first time in Autumn Twilight is completely invalidated by already having seen them in Darkness & Light.

Weasel's Luck, I remember liking back in the day. But reading about a snarky young teenager is very different when you're still younger than he is, and then when you're much older. Upon re-read, I found him an utter brat.

There are plenty of Dragonlance books beyond the first three trilogies that I've enjoyed as an adult, don't get me wrong. I don't want to sound like a total grumpus about them.

I need to read that again as I do not recall. I remembered I enjoyed it though for the potential Sturmiara-ship which you later find out did happen.


I have not read this one yet, although I do own it.

With the number of writers they had, the speed with which they were churning out fiction (presumably to benefit from the Bank of Random House), it wouldn't surprise me if authors and editors weren't given the information and time they needed.

I also have a feeling that some of these books were slush pile submissions that were revised to be set in Dragonlance, and they missed updating a few things here and there.

Given how quickly TSR was churning out novels back then, I wonder what information the authors were given before they began writing. If I recall correctly, "Dragons of Spring Dawning" established Ariakas as a powerful magic-user, but the book covering his backstory "Emperor of Ansalon" depicted him as a skilled warrior who became a cleric in the service of Takhisis (which reflects his in-game stat block).

 

[Haplo781]

Even then, if someone really wants to play one of the races that have supposedly been eradicated from Athas, there are ways to make it without breaking the setting.

Perhaps one of the sorcerer-kings kept a small hidden enclave of orcs alive as test subjects, or a population survived undiscovered somewhere outside of the Tablelands, or long ago in the face of their extinction some great archmage opposing the genocide used powerful temporal magics to cast some of their number into the distant future like a time-travel version of Superman's origin story.

"You're a tarek. Game stats are identical to an orc."

 

[Alzrius]

The story of Darkness & Light was fun until it went to the moon. After that it went off-rails really quickly.

I'm trying to remember if it was in The Second Generation or Dragons of Summer Flame where Weis and Hickman subtly made fun of that story by having Caramon, in response to some wild rumor, say something to the effect of "I heard that one, along with the wild tale about Sturm and Kitiara going to the red moon!"

 

[Ath'kethin]

You see Knights of the Sword casting healing spells in Dragons of Summer Flame, but that's about it for Sword Knight cleric abilities.

Really? Huh. I don't remember that.

Of course, I reread the Chronicles and Legends once every couple of years, and I don't think I've read Summer Flame since 1998 or so, so that could explain it.